


Thin ice

by Kangoo



Series: Destcember 2020 [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Implied/referenced Relationship, Other, Stasis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:07:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27838852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kangoo/pseuds/Kangoo
Summary: Occam finds comfort in the cold.
Relationships: The Drifter & Nonbinary Guardian (Destiny)
Series: Destcember 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2037697
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Thin ice

**Author's Note:**

> it's that time of the year again! (time for me to write senseless bullshit about my ocs ♥)

Europa is cold — the kind of cold that crawls under your skin and settles into your bones. Once you’re used to it, past the burning sensation of frostbite, it’s nearly comforting. The numbness it brings, the clear silence. The thin frontier between sleep and waking. It’s a struggle to stay awake, but struggling means you’re alive, and there’s comfort in that too.

Stasis is cold too, but it’s different. Sharper. It hurts, sometimes, when the ice grows and digs into your skin, your flesh.

It hurts like cutting yourself on a knife, like a lesson in handling it better.

Occam is good with knives. There’s no reason they can’t be good with stasis as well.

They watch frost curl over their fingers where they’re wrapped around their rifle, fragile fractals blooming over the leather. It’s becoming harder each day to keep it at bay. Sometimes they don’t notice the ice growing through their armor until they shift their position and hear it crack as it breaks around their joints.

“You’re slippin’.”

In any other place, they’d startle. But here and now, with the constant hum of the Dark in the back of their mind and the howl of the wind, with the cold grasping them in its claws, they barely move a muscle. They turn their face away from their sniper scope until they can see Drifter in the corner of their eye. His face is unreadable under the mask, as carefully void of emotion as his voice.

There’s something on his mind. Hardly a shock with the Darkness on their figurative doorstep. Drifter can pretend all he wants, it’s clear as day he worries.

“Am I?” 

He gestures at the ice crawling up their arm, nearly to their shoulder. Their shrug dislodges pieces of it. They turn to fine, glowing dust before touching the snow-covered ground.

“I got it under control.”

Conversation over, they turn back to their rifle. Aim. Breathe in, hold it— 

_Fire_.

A hobgoblin shatters on impact, Vex fluid splattering over the snow in glowing, smoking puddles. They eject the cartridge. The empty shell joins the pile steadily growing at their side. Ice rings like a chime when they accidentally hit it with the butt of the rifle. They roll their shoulder and, noticing it doesn’t hinder their movement, let it be.

Drifter exhales sharply, somewhere between amusement and aggravation. This time they don’t bother to turn. He’ll speak whether they look at him or not and they have bounties to fulfill. Rent won’t pay itself.

“Under control, sure.”

“Is there a point to this or are you just here to distract me while I work?”

“I’m here to tell you to be careful.” They can nearly feel the weight of his gaze on the back of their neck. It sends a shiver down their back, wholly different from the chill. “I ain’t seen the Renegade since the Darkness came knockin’, but if he’s gonna be anywhere, it’ll be here.”

“I can handle Malphur.” Another shot. An hydra shatters, briefly setting the area alight with its explosive death. “I don’t need you to… _worry_ about me.”

“I’m here anyway. Gambit’s a bit slow with everyone running around Europa, I got time on my hands.”

“Go spend it with someone else. I’m busy.”

Silence. Drifter’s usually too chatty for it: you know he’s ready for trouble when he doesn’t say anything. Still Occam doesn’t move. Finally,

“Aight, I’ll skedaddle,” he says, tone too light to be true. “Still. Take care. Malphur’s not your biggest threat in this place.”

“Yeah? What is?”

He doesn’t say anything. Only pat their shoulder, careful of the shards of ice, and leaves.

**Author's Note:**

> for more of my bullshit, come haunt me on [tumblr](https://youngster-monster.tumblr.com/)


End file.
